I was watching a scary program on knock-offs the other day and was surprised to see have far it has gone.Understandably if you buy a forty dollar Rolex it is a forgery,it is the brake pads with 30%sawdust,prevelance in the aircraft industry etc.etc.that concerns me.Is there any semblance of it in the rv industry?is there anyway of checking the product authenticity?Hope so!Wally 34ft Monarch van-isle

Sadly, most products are knock-offs. Every time a company moves their production to China, the result is a lower quality product. I have experienced this with not only US companies, but with Japanese cameras and nail guns, Swiss jigsaws, Swedish bearings, German knives, and on and on.

Their are many examples of the exact same Chinese product sold under several brand names. Buying a name brand no longer means anything.

When I was in the specialty steel business (Crucible Steel), we had to outsource some of our products to foreign countries. It was that or stop producing them. Whenever we did so, we sent a team of metallurgists to inspect the production facilities and also to put proper quality control systems in place. There were some plants in China that were junk. A few were quite good. The same can be said of Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. Unfortunately, others don't do the job we did. We were not about to let our customers suffer from poor quality. They would have stopped buying anything from us, regardless of where it was produced.

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin:

Buy a Lincoln welder at Home Depot. It is not the same as the one you can purchase at the professional welding supply house.

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Buy a Delta faucet at Home Depot. It is not the same one you buy at the plumbers supply house.

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Do those examples have the same part number and country of origin?

Anytime a company decides to out source to China it is because of greed.
The American company top brass get more money and the workers loose money or their jobs. It's that simple.
Another thing is China charges 25% import fees and America only something like 6%. I ask where is the fairness in that.
Several years ago American insurance companies pass rules stating that body parts such as fenders, doors and other metal body parts to be used on accident vehicles had to be made in America because of the poor metal quality of those parts made in China. When tested those parts failed strenght and where found to rust quickly.

I too have found that several brand names are on the same tool all made in China.

Speaking of Chinese steel.............

Avoid Chinese nails at all costs!

I have driven a jillion nails in the last 3 years, and they are awful. They bend easily, but break when pulling is attempted.

Chinese steel has such a bad rep that some companies are assuring us that their line of Chinese-made backhoes, etc, are made of US steel.

Nails from Chile are also lousy...